Nicolle Wallace hammers former US attorney over why he didn’t sound the alarm to Congress sooner
Former US Attorney Geoffrey Berman, of the Southern District of New York, began sounding the alarm in the middle of 2020 about what he was witnessing at the Justice Department.
In a new tell-all book, "Holding the Line," Berman describes the ways in which former Attorney General Bill Barr managed to insulate Donald Trump and his allies.
“Every single chapter is a new example of political corruption at DOJ," said MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on "Deadline White House" while talking to Berman. "And you're telling that a lot of them are coming straight from the White House Twitter feed and I wonder if you were ever so concerned that you asked your inspector general to look into main DOJ, to Mr. Ed O'Callaghan, and you write about Brian Rabbitt. Did you ask anyone to look into what you describe as a pattern?"
"We handled the interferences, the attempts to interfere ourselves and we didn't have the need to refer it to the inspector general," said Berman.
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"So, the first time an inspector general would read about this kind of political interference would be in this book?" Wallace asked.
"We never took it to the inspector general. We didn't have the need for it," Berman said.
"Did you sit as a group and wonder if you should go to the Oversight Committee, or Senate or House Judiciary?" she pressed further.
"We handled it" Berman answered again. "And if we weren't successful in handling it, and maintaining the independence and integrity of the Southern District of New York, that was my job. That was my sole job. To make sure that we did things the Southern District way and we always did. If we weren't able to do that, then there might have been either methods. In fact, at end of my tenure, there was a situation where Barr was going to impose an outsider who he trusted in charge of the Southern District of New York. And at that point, I went public, I was noisy."
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He went on to say that he wasn't sure there was ever a precedent at the DOJ for what he did.
"I sent out a press release and I told the entire country what Barr was trying to do and how he crossed the line and I used the language from the obstruction of justice statute. And it was because of that very noisy exit that Barr backed down and Audrey Straus, a person of highest integrity, took over as the acting U.S. Attorney."
Former Trump officials have been criticized in the past for refusing to stand up and sound the alarm about illegal activities prior to releasing their book. It is frequently seen as their opportunity to make money over the safety and security of the American people. It was an accusation waged at Washington Postreporter Bob Woodward, who released a book after the presidency that revealed Donald Trump knew that the COVID-19 pandemic was major, serious and deadly while telling the country it wasn't a big deal. New York Timesreporter Maggie Haberman's new book isn't even released yet and already she's being criticized for holding back information about Trump before he left office that would have been helpful in the second impeachment hearing.
Berman's book "Holding the Line" is available on sale now and Raw Story has full coverage here.
See the conversation below or at the link here.
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